Rights holders, seeing a light of increasing intensity at the end of a very long tunnel, are making a serious reinvestment in A&R. This ramped-up commitment to an area that has long been considered the foundation of virtually every successful music company has been inspired by a return to increased profitability following a decade and a half of diminished expectations. The turnaround is due in large part to the industry’s collective bet that the mainstream would come to embrace paid streaming.

The Grammy nominations announced Tuesday morning contain the usual surprises and snubs—all well and good. But as for the process that led to these decisions, we know nothing whatsoever, because Neil Portnow and the Recording Academy have kept the whole thing a mystery, as always. Why does the Academy insist on keeping its process under wraps? Why can’t the nominations be presented with context and transparency? Why does the secret committee need to be secret?

Which of the majors nabbed the most Grammy nominations? Behold a breakdown of tallies, provided by labels and distributors. Team Columbia leads with a whopping 32 noms on the label side, while BobMorelli's RED leads the independent distributors with 29.

Beyoncé and Adele are nominated in three of the top Grammy categories—Record, Song and Album of the Year—and Justin Bieber and Lukas Graham will contend for two of the biggies. Meghan Trainor, the reigning Best New Artist, announced the Big Four nominations today on CBS This Morning.

The stats are here and it’s clear the 2016 radio landscape was dominated by Gary Spangler’s Republic, which not only ranks #1 in overall marketshare (17.9) but secured enough hits across the FM dial to rank as the #1 label at the Top 40, Rhythm, AC and Hot AC formats. Joe Riccitelli’s RCA is right behind at #2...

The Hamilton Mixtape will top our SPS and album charts next week as five titles break 100k in total consumption. We’ve increased our RollingStones projection slightly as sales hold steady following their appearance on CBS Sunday Morning.

Rights holders, seeing a light of increasing intensity at the end of a very long tunnel, are making a serious reinvestment in A&R. This ramped-up commitment to an area that has long been considered the foundation of virtually every successful music company has been inspired by a return to increased profitability following a decade and a half of diminished expectations. The turnaround is due in large part to the industry’s collective bet that the mainstream would come to embrace paid streaming.

The Grammy nominations announced Tuesday morning contain the usual surprises and snubs—all well and good. But as for the process that led to these decisions, we know nothing whatsoever, because Neil Portnow and the Recording Academy have kept the whole thing a mystery, as always. Why does the Academy insist on keeping its process under wraps? Why can’t the nominations be presented with context and transparency? Why does the secret committee need to be secret?

On this flipover Friday, fans have flipped over J. Cole and the new ZAYN/Taylor Swift single from Fifty Shades Darker. The artists are #1-3 on the iTunes songs chart while Cole is the leader on the album side.

J. Cole’s “Déjà vu” gets a prime spot on Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist. Meanwhile, some of us are having dance-floor déjà vu’s as the list also includes new music from Moby, Diplo,Major Lazer and a Justin Bieber dance track—suddenly we’re wearing a panda bear costume and sucking on a pacifier.

Which of the majors nabbed the most Grammy nominations? Behold a breakdown of tallies, provided by labels and distributors. Team Columbia leads with a whopping 32 noms on the label side, while BobMorelli's RED leads the independent distributors with 29.

"Ah yes, I remember 1975," Pandora CEO Tim Westergren notes to Dirty Hit/Interscope's The 1975 during the digital music giant's Pandora Holiday Live Party at Pier 36 in NYC. "I went to see Jaws and I spilled my Orange Crush and my Keds were stuck to the floor and then we had to find a payphone, and then we went to TreehouseRecords and got the new Bachman-Turner Overdrive LP." The band members used an app on their phones to translate.

The Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act has cleared the House and Senate and now heads to the President's desk for his signature. The bipartisan bill, designed to curb scalping, gives the FTC and the states new powers to halt the ability of bots to hoover up the best tix and gouge them via resale. The Recording Academy praised...

In this classic shot from our archives, which scientists believe dates from around 1988, Irving and ShelliAzoff and Don and BarbaraRickles enjoy a hearty chuckle about those idiots in the Valley who started a trade magazine…

Jason Iley’s Sony U.K. has come out on top in the competition for the coveted BRITs 2017 Critics’ Choice gong, which has been awarded to Columbia-signed singer/songwriter Rag’n’Bone Man. It’s the second win for Sony over the last decade after a long run of success for Universal in the category.

Kirstin Maldonado of RCA's chart-topping vocal quintet Pentatonix patiently explains to HITS' own Simon Glickman that the group's 12/14 NBC holiday special will not be featuring a Chanukah medley. Maldonado then made her escape before Glickman and HITS President of Digital Ventures Todd Hensley could get through "The Dreidel Song." Not pictured: Jonathan Kalter's yarmulke.

There's gold in them thar streams. XO/Republic's TheWeeknd earned 41% of the total revenue on this week's Song Revenue Chart, with $1.23m+ thrown off by the many tracks from Starboy blasting away on the rev Top 50. His streaming revenue significantly outpaced sales. Republic owns six of the Top 10, while Interscope…

Sales man Marco Bertozzi has been tapped by Spotify as VP Europe/Head of Sales. He’ll be based in London from January, overseeing the streaming service's Direct, Programmatic and International business across the region.

Global Music Rights (GMR), the performance-rights organization started by Irving Azoff, has filed an antitrust suit in L.A. against the Radio Music Licensing Committee, which it describes as a "cartel of radio station owners colluding against songwriters." Says Azoff, "This is the most important fight of my professional life. I will not stop the fight for fairness to artists and songwriters."

The 12-year-old America's Got Talent breakout, whose SYCO/Columbia EP bowed on 12/2, stunned the world with her mature, expressive voice and the emotional wallop of her tersely crafted songs. This lyric vid is an apt visualization of her creative elasticity, even as she stands firm against bullying and conformity.